Professional Association

A professional association is a public organization formed on a professional basis and protecting both the interests of the profession and the public interests associated with the relevant professional activity.

A professional association may assume the functions of managing a professional community or controlling professional activities in its field ^[1] . In its work, a professional association encounters two conflicting goals: on the one hand, it must defend the interests of the profession, on the other hand, it must introduce standards, regulations and restrictions and prosecute their violators.

Many professional associations participate in the development and implementation of vocational training and advanced training programs, and carry out professional certification of representatives of the profession. In some cases, the right to a professional activity is given by membership in a professional association itself.

The leader in the number of professional associations is the United States . The phenomenon of “professionalization” has also spread here - the transformation of a set of skills and competencies into a profession.

In Russia, for example, self-regulatory organizations can be classified as professional associations.

In French-speaking countries, in addition to professional associations, there are interprofessional associations, which include several participants in a single production chain in agriculture ^{[2] [3]} .

In the United States, commercial professional corporations also operate under the guise of professional associations ^[4] .